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Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

lemond.com

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Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#101

Post by kazinator »

technofiend wrote: post #26
YawningAngel wrote: post #4

I'm always confused by people of working age who ride bikes like this. What's the attraction of a more expensive and heavier bike that's no faster than pedaling yourself?

Yeah excellent question. Hot and humid climates make this appealing if you don't need to pedal; perhaps you can get to work without needing a shower. But considering the likely cost due to name, weight and components it feels very niche nonetheless. It's difficult to justify a bike that's thousands when an annual bus pass might be a few hundred.

> It's difficult to justify a bike that's thousands when an annual bus pass might be a few hundred.

- A bike is not annually thousands. A good quality bike will last you a decade or more. Not with $0 maintenance, but not hundreds per year.

- Commute times on a bike are shorter than the bus. I'm not even talking e-bike now. Due to traffic congestion effects (that hardly affect bicycles at all), you can beat even automobile commuting on a plain human-powered bike. With the e-bike in the equation, it can be no contest. You can go 40-50 km/h for most of the commute, and zip around bumper-to-bumper traffic like it's not there.

- Convenience: hop on it and go anywhere you want, at any time. No waiting. E.g. go out for lunch in the middle of the workday.

- Transit is a good place to catch viruses from people. Complete non-starter in this pandemic.

- Transit is a good place to be assaulted, robbed and exposed to cigarette smoke.

- The bike offers freedom from irritating and depressing exposure to people from socially incompatible classes. (Well almost; there are some drivers out there: but you're not sitting next to them for 30 minutes.)

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#102

Post by aidenn0 »

boomskats wrote: post #66
ebg13 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps there’s a market for people who want an ebike that’s a little easier to get up apartment stairs? A detachable battery might also help with this.

In Europe a lot of the Bosch/Yamaha bikes have the so-called 'walk mode', where you hold down a button and the bike powers itself up whatever slope at walking pace. For some reason I understand this mode is illegal in the US, but it makes all the difference over here - especially when going up stairs (or other 45 degree slopes).

My RadWagon has a walk mode, I'm pretty big though so never needed to use it.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#103

Post by SigmundA »

andrewem wrote: post #84
SigmundA wrote: post #62

I get wanting light weight, my current aluminum ebike is 80 lbs, but my current ebike is a Juiced Ripcurrent S fat tire with 1kWh battery and I completely out speed and out range my friend who has a Turbo Vado SL while being much more comfortable and spending 1k less. The main downside with the weight is getting up on a bike rack to drive it somewhere, but they have rack with ramps now designed for heavy ebikes. I kn…

I saw someone riding a cargo ebike with a kid on it and went home excited to get one. Then I discovered it weighs over 70 pounds, which I can’t imagine working since to get it to my basement storage area requires carrying up several steps then down several more through the cramped bulkhead door. Maybe some people are strong enough for that not to be a significant annoyance, but I’m not one of them.

If you live somewhere that needs steps to get to definitely an issue. Bikes with throttles can be used to assist in moving, some have a "walk mode" where you hit a button and its like a 5 mph throttle, mine has both, you could use up steps if it made sense.

I just have it in a garage and take off and ride whenever no steps, so day to day it's effortless. If I want to take it long distance I put it on my bike rack which is a real pain due to having to lift up on, looking at tray racks with ramps going forward.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#104

Post by kazinator »

YawningAngel wrote: post #4

I'm always confused by people of working age who ride bikes like this. What's the attraction of a more expensive and heavier bike that's no faster than pedaling yourself?

The speed restrictions are a complete lie, and only in the firmware. Users are obviously working around them.

I've never seen an e-bike rider who was not whooping ass.

They usually go at least 40 km/h, which most pedal cyclists can barely reach, let alone sustain, and the e-cyclists can keep up the pace going up hills.

E-bikes are pedal-assist, which means you get the combined wattage from your legs and the motor. You have more combined wattage than a Tour de France competitor.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#105

Post by kazinator »

madeofpalk wrote: post #55
ginko wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to pedal yourself.

For what it's worth, you do have to pedal yourself (its e-assist), but you just don't have to pedal as hard.

This is not what I see; these things go-go-go, even if the rider puts out no effort. I see people going over 40 km/h on e-bikes while basically just barely pretending to pedal.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#106

Post by taude »

_verandaguy wrote: post #5

Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…

I'm waiting to buy into a sleak looking, sub 30 pound e-bike for commuting. I'll probably pay up to $3K for such a bike. There's advantages to having it be an e-bike over just buying a scooter or such, like storage, parking downtown, etc. so it'll be pretty easy for me to justify a budget for a bike, as long as it's nice.

I don't really like the external gearing of this bike, and not sure it needs standard Di2 type of components for shifting and whatnot....

This bike looks about 10x better than almost every other e-bike I've seen, so far. I'm sure we're about to see a lot of improvement in the next couple years of e-bike styling and tech...

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#107

Post by gameswithgo »

_verandaguy wrote: post #5

Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…

One chain ring is the new thing these days, with 11+ cog cassettes.

Lack of aero shape probably facilitates putting the battery in there. Though they could do the handle bars and seat stays at least.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#108

Post by gameswithgo »

xtqctz wrote: post #96
bitcurious wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not uncommon in the biggest urban markets to bring your bike indoors overnight. The ability to easily lift the bike and carry it upstairs or just pick it up so you don’t sully the carpet is important. Low weight isn’t just for speed.

Exactly. Carrying at 50lb ebike up a three story walk up is a hassle, but 25lbs is relatively easy.

Using carbon fiber is saving on the order of 1 or 2 lbs though, not 25.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#109

Post by woah »

_verandaguy wrote: post #5

Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…

Ever carried a bike up some stairs???

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#110

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

_verandaguy wrote: post #5

Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…

Carbon frames aren't prohibitively expensive. Almost all of them are made in Taiwan or mainland China now and you can get cheap frames from the same factories that make the expensive ones. There was a time when carbon forks were expensive. They became commoditized 20 years ago. The same has happened now with the rest of the bike.
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